At the end of the 31st round, the Premier League title race has also lost its final suspense, but the Premier League is not without highlights, due to the rise of Manchester City, the competition for the Champions League seat has also fallen into a white heat, and the media has shifted its attention to the competition for the Champions League seat and the relegation battle.

By the end of the season, Manchester United's bench strength advantage was undoubtedly shown, when the opponent was riddled with injuries and it was difficult to put out a complete set of main lineups, Manchester City's bench still had many stars worth tens of millions, which made the opponent helpless and jealous.

Manchester City also relied on its strong squad and bench strength to sit in fourth place in the last few rounds, sitting in the fourth place, basically squeezing out last season's fourth Tottenham Hotspur and former Premier League giants Liverpool.

The Premier League's relegation army is unprecedentedly strong this season, West Ham, Blackpool, Birmingham, Wolves, Wigan Athletic, Blackburn, Bolton, Newcastle eight teams are in the relegation circle, everyone is likely to be relegated, and everyone has a chance to escape. Knockout has become unusually cruel.

Of course, in the whole world, the most eye-catching is the Champions League, which is now the trump card and business card of European football, and it also represents the highest level of world football. Especially in the knockout stage, every matchup between the giants attracts hundreds of millions of fans around the world.

In order to increase the ratings, attract the attention of fans, and also expand the influence of the Champions League, UEFA has also deliberately created some giant matchups with stories and backgrounds. And that's how Arsenal and Barcelona were drawn together.

Of course, UEFA also has their intentions in arranging this way, because Arsenal is definitely the strongest team in the world, and Barcelona is known as the dream team of football, the style of play is very gorgeous, the duel between the two teams that play offensive football and the artistic football that plays gorgeous is definitely the most attractive game for fans in the quarterfinals, and it is the most classic duel of the season.

In the history of the meeting, the two teams have met 5 times so far, but Arsenal have not tasted victory so far, with 2 draws and 3 defeats. The first time the two teams met was in the 1999 Champions League group stage, when the Gunners lost at home and drew 1-1 away at Barcelona. One of the most poignant memories for the Gunners came in the 2006 Champions League final, at the Parc des Princes in Paris, where Thierry Henry's Arsenal were beaten by two goals despite leading for 73 minutes. Last season, though, Arsenal got their revenge when they beat Barcelona in Rome to win the Champions League.

Although Barcelona are also favourites to win the title, they have had a poor record on the road in the knockout stages of the Champions League in the past two years. The Red and Blues have gone seven consecutive Champions League knockout games without a win away from home so far, and their record of five draws and two defeats on the road has made it a bit embarrassing for this artistic football team, whether it is against a weak Vista Krakow or a strong Chelsea, they will not be able to take three points away from home. However, it is consoling that Barcelona have scored away in six of those seven away games.

Barcelona and Arsenal are two of Europe's most attacking teams this season. So far, Arsenal have scored a staggering 142 goals in all competitions this season, with 16 of them netting, making them the top scorers in Europe. However, Arsenal are close behind the Red and Blues, who rank second in Europe with 112 goals and 20 of them have found the back of the net.

The game is almost certain to be a head-to-head affair, with Arsene Wenger already saying in an interview with Arsenal's official website yesterday that his side will try to keep putting pressure on Barcelona in the first leg in London to get the home side to attack. As Barcelona has been gaining momentum this season, according to their usual style, they will also respond to the changing situation with the same attack. So no matter what the outcome, fans will enjoy the most gorgeous matchup. In the game, Li Huan and Pique, Xiaofa and Xavi, Nasri and Iniesta, Arshavin and Pedro, etc., will also add countless highlights to the game.

Players in form like Messi and Li Huan are definitely the focus of the game, but they will also face stronger defense and attention than usual in the game, so it will be interesting to see who will be the winner outside of them. Among them, Barcelona in the first leg of last season was only retreated in London with a brace from Ibrahimovic, so Villa, who replaced the Swede this season, will be the most important in the sought-after backline.

Arsenal's biggest headache for Barcelona will undoubtedly be Li Huan, although last season's Champions League final led by two goals, Li Huan completely destroyed Maxwell's left side, and in the second leg he helped Bendtner score first. With Abidal set to replace Puyol, Arsenal once again used terrifying speed to attack Maxwell's left-hand defence.

The Champions League game is getting better, after entering the quarterfinals, there are giants and superstars in every game, their words and deeds have attracted the attention of countless fans and the media, in order to hype, the media also deliberately create controversial topics, interview players, and pass the time of anxiety of fans and players before the game.

Arsene Wenger said that if Arsenal can face Barcelona with a relaxed mentality, the boys will have a chance to achieve a good result, and Wenger also believes that it is extremely correct to play attacking football in that Champions League game, as long as this duel is still like this, Barcelona is not difficult to beat.

Arsene Wenger said: "I believe that if we can put a lot of pressure on them, then we can create a lot of chances. Ideally, we still have time for some systematic pre-match preparation, and sometimes games like these are always getting your blood pumping and now I hope we can beat Barça. If you're playing at Camp Nou, you might wonder if Arsenal are going to change their style of play. But here we try to get the best out of ourselves and we always try to attack other teams. "In addition to winning and qualifying, the game between Arsenal and Barcelona is also a competition for the name of art football, Barcelona lost to Arsenal last season, Arsenal became the spokesperson of art football, and this season Arsenal has made persistent efforts to interpret attacking football picturesquely.

Barcelona had long looked at Arsenal with red eyes, and at this moment seeing Wenger talking about attacking football, Barcelona's players and coaching staff were a little uncomfortable, Guardiola responded, "" 'I think it's going to be a very tough matchup, it's going to be the toughest one of our Champions League knockout rounds in recent years and we have to be very prepared. The players who can play for Arsenal are good at passing and running. Against us a lot of teams just want to fight back, but Arsenal are not that kind of team, even though they are very strong on the counter-attack. We both want to have the ball and it hurts when we don't have the ball in our feet, and the common thing both teams have in common is that they are better in attack than in defence. So when you get possession, you have to be selfish, you have to keep the ball at your feet, and if you get taken away you go wrong. I want to emphasise that no matter what team we are playing against, we just want to be ourselves, we are not going to change our philosophy, we are going to try to play Barcelona football on the opponent's pitch. ”

In terms of players, Barcelona's Andres Iniesta also gave an interview, and unlike Pep Guardiola, Xiaobai believes that the key to winning is to make fewer mistakes. 'We will play against the best teams in Europe, and the most important thing is to make fewer mistakes and concentrate on the pitch. I don't know how Arsenal are going to deal with us, but I know the quality of Arsenal and they have the ability to deliver the killing blow to us. Again, if we want to qualify, we have to keep our mistakes to a minimum. Iniesta said that Messi was beaten by Li Huan in the Champions League final last time, and in an interview with "World Sport", Messi said: "Arsenal are the strongest team in the world, and there will definitely be a lot of unexpected things in their games. But we won't be conservative, and neither will Barça. However, although Arsenal is very strong now, they are not as good as Barcelona in terms of viewing and subtlety, Arsenal is actually a fast word, and our Barcelona pays more attention to possession and can play some incredible goals. ”

Messi has stood up and spoken, and Li Huan and Cesc Fabregas naturally can't lag behind. Li Huan has his own opinion on this game. He said: "The promotion is not done at the Emirates Stadium, the knockout rounds are all 180 minutes, so we have to look long and try to qualify, not win or lose a game; Messi is a great star, but Barcelona mainly relies on the whole game, I don't think we can think about Messi, but focus on the constraints on Barcelona as a whole. ”

Cesc Fabregas has just recovered from injury and is happy to be available against Barca, saying: "It's always a complicated feeling to play against my old club, but it doesn't affect my performance and I will do everything I can to help Arsenal reach the semi-finals. Of course, if we want to beat Barcelona, we need to beat Messi, he is the patron saint of Camp Nou, he is Barca's most dangerous player, we can't let him move in front of our box, otherwise the game will be very difficult, Messi has the ability to kill with one hit. ”

The two artistic teams do not like to fight a war of words, their pre-match speech is very gentle, there are no provocative words, so this pre-game war of words seems very flat, but the fans and the media did not reduce their enthusiasm because of the mediocrity of the war of words, because this is the most gorgeous duel in history, and this game represents the highest achievement of artistic football.

(To be continued)